Continuing Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood: Returning Compassion, Connection, and Social Presence to Teaching and Learning

In the midst of the cacophony of this summer's 24/7 news cycle laced with vitriol and violence, I took sanctuary in a much-needed story of kindness and compassion. Morgan Neville's 2018 documentary, Won't You Be My Neighbor?, tells the story of Fred Rogers, the visionary behind the beloved children's public television series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.

This documentary released a flood of memories for me. When I was a little girl, I often daydreamed of being Mister Rogers's special sidekick. We—Mister Rogers and I—would begin the show with a perfectly synchronized signature wave and smile. For me, Mister Rogers was a stark contrast to many of the adults in my life who, at times, made me feel small and insignificant. Instead, Mister Rogers talked peer-to-peer about life in general, as well as about difficult subjects such as anger, new siblings, and divorce.

After successfully pleading the importance of public television to Congress in May 1969, Fred Rogers continued to leverage public television as a powerful springboard to tackle tough topics and to teach warmth, generosity, and respect to children for more than three decades.¹ He radiated compassion, reminded us to stand up for what is right, and effortlessly modeled the importance of relationships, connections, and inquiry as essential life skills.

Importance of Connections and Relationships for Learning

At a primal level, connections and relationships are important because we are all social beings who crave engagement and a sense of belonging. Psychologist Ian Newby-Clark comments, "Almost all of us desire the company of others on a regular basis. And others, we hope, desire ours."² Likewise, Fred Rogers often reflected on the importance of the "connections we make in the course of a life" and suggested that "relationships require kindness and patience, tolerance, optimism, joy in the other's achievements, confidence in oneself, and the ability to give without undue thought of gain."³

These same qualities that he identifies as necessary for nurturing relationships are paramount for learning. Educational research scholar K. Patricia Cross explains this importance in terms of four types of connections—neurological, cognitive, social, and experiential.⁴ Additionally, Lois Zachary addresses the power of connections and relationships in different generations of faculty who later seek to promote these attributes in others.⁵

Mister Rogers radiated such a warm and welcoming presence that he immediately put his audience at ease. Similarly, as an educator, I also hope to create learning environments where students feel comfortable approaching me and other students with questions or concerns, and I want to encourage and engage in student-centered conversations with all the grace and mutual respect that Mister Rogers modeled.

Social Presence

For decades, I have seen and felt the power of connections in learning environments—face-to-face, blended, and online. As a scholar, I have researched connectedness and social presence in online and blended learning for more than fifteen years.

Defining Social Presence

I define social presence as emotional connections that motivate students to take an active role in their learning as well as that of their peers. Over the years, my colleagues and I have authored dozens of articles, book chapters, and presentations providing practical strategies to integrate social presence to help faculty get started.⁶

To clarify, social presence does not mean neglecting classroom management or coddling our students; in fact, it is quite the opposite. It means drawing from connections to shift more responsibility to students, allowing them the opportunity to take ownership of their learning. It means leveraging our relationships to help students grow in ways they never expected.

Social presence couples well with the warm demander approach outlined by Elizabeth Bondy and Doreen Ross, which leverages warmth for even greater expectations and learning outcomes.⁷

Core Principles

Although social presence has many definitions,⁸ the core principle relates to emotional connections for learning, and it has been widely studied. Online learning expert Karen Swan found a connection between social presence and the quality and satisfaction of online work.⁹ Phil Ice, Melissa Layne, and Wally Boston conducted a wide-scale quantitative study with more than 28,000 participants to determine factors that led to student retention and re-enrollment. The study's results suggest that "88% of social presence indicators were significant predictors of student reenrollment" and that "social presence in general and affective [emotional] expression in particular are important determinants for persistence in online education."¹⁰ This research suggests that if we want to create meaningful learning experiences, social presence offers a roadmap to achieve them.

Why Social Presence Matters

Despite the appearance of a carefree existence, our students are often struggling with the transition to college and college life, which is one of the biggest transitions they will face in life. During this adjustment period, our students are dealing with a multitude of stressors and mental health issues.¹¹

While we need to focus on their academic progress, it is also important to be mindful of our students' emotional struggles. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), about 30 percent of college students have felt too depressed to function at one time in their college career and the vast majority are completely overwhelmed.¹² Most of us are not counselors, so we must refer our students to the needed resources. Yet, at the same time, we care about our students' well-being and have a vested interest in their continued education. NAMI finds, however, that "64 percent of students who experience mental health problems in college and withdraw from school do so because of their mental health issues."¹³

Thus, a little Mister-Rogers-style compassion can go a long way in helping students transition and thrive on our campuses. That same compassion also can enhance learning environments, whether they be in the classroom or online.

A Critical Literacy for Learning

Not only is social presence a pathway for learning and a vessel for outreach and retention, but it is also a critical literacy. Literacy relates to knowledge or a level of competence in a given area. In defining literacies, the National Council of Teachers of English suggests that "the 21st century demands a literate person possess a wide range" of abilities, competencies, and literacies.¹⁴

The socioemotional aspects of teaching and learning are vitally important and, therefore, warrant literacy status.¹⁵ Thus, social presence embodies an influential literacy—similar to those such as technological literacy, rhetorical literacy, and digital literacy¹⁶—and serves a key role in advancing and sustaining successful, meaningful learning experiences. It is a literacy that requires careful consideration, cultivation, and continued Mister-Rogers-style exploration.¹⁷

Mister Rogers and "Neighborhood" Classrooms

After watching the documentary, I realized that Mister Rogers seamlessly models the importance of social presence as a critical literacy for learning. From helping children understand and celebrate diversity to dealing with divorce and siblings, no topic was too emotional or complex for him. Each topic and each episode was carefully executed and handled with care, concern, respect, and, ultimately, social presence.

Modeling Social Presence

For example, after reading a letter from a five-year-old visually impaired viewer named Katie who could not see if Mister Rogers's fish were being fed, he made a practice of stating out loud when he was feeding the fish. Further, he responded directly to Katie during the show [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjWNRPq_iqg], saying that, "I just wanted you to know that even if I forget to feed them when we're together, I come back later and feed them, so they're always taken care of. It's good to know that fish and animals and children are taken care of by those who can, isn't it?"¹⁸ His care and concern for Katie exuded social presence by tending to her emotional needs, putting her at ease, and allowing her to focus on the lesson of the day.

In another episode, controversial in its time in 1969, Mister Rogers and Officer Clemmons, an African American, had finished soaking their feet together in a small pool. Mister Rogers then gently wiped Clemmons's feet, modeling how diverse races can easily and lovingly interact.¹⁹ Here Rogers modeled compassion, equity, and social presence on public television for a nation still embattled in a lengthy civil brawl against itself. In this simple, kind gesture, Mister Rogers made an incredibly important statement. In doing so, he modeled how emotional connections and interactions are important in cultivating social presence.

Classroom as Neighborhood

The metaphor of the neighborhood, especially the one that Mister Rogers cultivated, deserves careful consideration for learning environments. Each person in Mister Rogers' Neighborhood played an integral role in supporting community, including Major Maggie, Officer Clemmons, Lady Aberlin, Neighbor Aber, and Mr. McFeeley.²⁰ Each person in the neighborhood helped others in different ways and at different times. Likewise, we could consider mirroring this approach in classroom settings and in blended and online learning environments. Because research suggests that the social relationship between instructors and students serves as a fundamental catalyst for learning,²¹ reimagining the classroom as a neighborhood offers a simple way of increasing social presence that can serve as a launch pad for maximizing learning outcomes.

In this way, remembering Mister Rogers's calm, positive energy and using social presence strategies may help reenergize our learning environments, whether they are face-to-face, blended, or online.²² Table 1 offers some ideas.

Table 1. What would Mister Rogers do (WWMRD) to increase social presence?

Social Presence Component	Definition	Examples and Ideas
Affective association	Addresses the emotional connections, including instances of emotion, humor, and personal self-disclosure	Be kind, thoughtful, and respectful Give praise, recognition, and motivational messages Create a safe environment Share often (self-disclosure) and allow the same for students
Community cohesion	Relates to the whole course community and involves greetings, salutations, and seeing the group as a cohesive community	Reimagine our classroom spaces as connected neighborhoods Refer directly to each other as a community Begin with "Dear [student's name]" or refer to them by name Use ice-breakers to help students connect to each other early in the course
Instructor involvement	Encompasses actions that instructors take within a learning environment, which can include establishing relationships and making social connections	Be a model Encourage the use of apps (such as Remind) that easily help keep students on task Keep high expectations and make them crystal clear Create interesting assignments that encourage higher-order thinking skills and creative problem-solving Provide early and routine feedback
Interaction intensity	Concerns the interaction level among participants, including directly quoting another classmate or paraphrasing another classmate's previous statement	Allow multiple opportunities for interaction Use multiple modes of communication and assessment Encourage the use of direct quotes or paraphrases from the team Develop educative interactive games Integrate meaningful technology where it can amplify or transform learning, such as interactive study guides and wikis for ongoing summaries of reading with key quotes and/or glossaries
Knowledge and experience	Includes the knowledge and prior experiences a student brings into the learning environment, which play an essential role in relationship building and the social negotiation process	Listen to each other Draw from each other's knowledge and experiences Share tips, ideas, and resources

The potential of social presence propels educators like me to continually refine our strategies and try to achieve that magic Mister Rogers touch that inspires inquiry, creativity, and neighborhood-like community.

Leading with Compassion

In her 2013 TED talk, educational leader Rita Pierson stated that, "Every child deserves a champion… who understands the power of connection."²³ As she suggests, everyone deserves a Mister Rogers–type of person who supports and champions his or her needs and goals. Yet some of our students have never had such a champion, or their champion may be hundreds or even thousands of miles away. In many cases, instructors become these champions.

Together, as instructors and IT leaders, we have the power to constitute positive change and impact students' lives by simply centering our teaching and professional development opportunities on social presence. Teaching is a profession like no other, and being behind the curtain of the educational process is as important as being in the classroom. We must support each other and partner together.

As Mister Rogers reminds us, our role in education is much more than covering a content area:

As human beings, our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is…that each of us has something that no one else has—or ever will have—something inside that is unique to all time. It's our job to encourage each other to discover that uniqueness and to provide ways of developing its expression.²⁴

Mister Rogers embodies the ultimate social presence role model for parents and children as well as for academic leaders, faculty, students, and those who support them. We were incredibly lucky to have learned from Fred Rogers. Each and every one of us who watched his show was drawn by the warm glow of his compassion, and we walked away with lifelong lessons.

One of my wise colleagues suggested that the best way to honor a legacy is to enact it. So, let's get started. Let's pay it forward to our students. Let's reimagine our classroom spaces as connected neighborhoods. Let's model the importance of inquiry, creativity, and compassion. Though Fred Rogers is physically gone, let's never let his lessons go. Instead, let's honor Fred Rogers's legacy by continuing his neighborhood, challenging ourselves to lead with compassion, celebrating diversity and uniqueness, and integrating social presence into our immediate and continued practice.

Notes

1. Morgan Neville, Won't You Be My Neighbor?, Focus Features, 2018. ↩
2. Ian Newby-Clark, "We Are Social Creatures: The Power of Others to Support Our Habits," Psychology Today, March 4, 2010. ↩
3. Fred Rogers, "Fred Rogers Quotes," Goodreads, 2018. ↩
4. K. Patricia Cross, "Learning Is about Making Connections," The Cross Papers, no. 3 (June 1999). ↩
5. Lois Zachary, The Mentor's Guide: Facilitating Effective Learning Relationships, 2nd ed. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000). ↩
6. For simple tips and tricks to integrate social presence, see Social Presence in Online Learning: Multiple Perspectives on Practice and Research, eds. Aimee L. Whiteside, Amy Garrett Dikkers, and Karen Swan (Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing, 2017); and Aimee L. Whiteside, Amy Garrett Dikkers, and Somer Lewis, "The Power of Social Presence for Learning," EDUCAUSE Review, May 29, 2014. ↩
7. For more about the warm demander approach, see Matt Alexander, "The Warm Demander: An Equity Approach," Edutopia, April 13, 2016; and Elizabeth Bondy and Doreen D. Ross, "The Teacher as Warm Demander," Educational Leadership 66, no. 1 (2008): 54–58. ↩
8. Patrick Ryan Lowenthal, "Social Presence: What Is It? How Do We Measure It?," paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Conference, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 2014. ↩
9. Karen Swan and Li Fang Shih, "On the Nature and Development of Social Presence in Online Course Discussions," Online Learning Journal 9, no. 3 (2005): 115–136. ↩
10. Phil Ice, Melissa Layne, and Wally Boston, "Social Presence and Student Success," in Social Presence in Online Learning: Multiple Perspectives on Practice and Research, eds. Aimee L. Whiteside, Amy Garrett Dikkers, and Karen Swan (Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing, 2017), 77–85. ↩
11. Isaac R. Galatzer-Levy, Charles L. Burton, and George A. Bonanno, "Coping Flexibility, Potentially Traumatic Life Events, and Resilience: A Prospective Study of College Student Adjustment," Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 31, no. 6 (2012): 542–567. ↩
12. College Students Speak: A Survey Report on Mental Health, National Alliance on Mental Illness, 2012. ↩
13. Ibid., 8. ↩
14. NCTE Definitions of 21st Century Literacies [http://www2.ncte.org/statement/21stcentdefinition/], National Council of Teachers of English, February 28, 2013. ↩
15. Aimee L. Whiteside, "Understanding Social Presence as a Critical Literacy," in Social Presence in Online Learning: Multiple Perspectives on Practice and Research, eds. Aimee L. Whiteside, Amy Garrett Dikkers, and Karen Swan (Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing, 2017), 133; and Aimee L. Whiteside, "Introducing the Social Presence Model to Explore Online and Blended Learning Experiences," Online Learning: Official Journal of the Online Learning Consortium 19, no. 2 (2015). ↩
16. Kelli Cargile Cook, "Layered Literacies: A Theoretical Frame for Technical Communication Pedagogy," Technical Communication Quarterly 11, no. 1 (2002): 5–29. ↩
17. Whiteside, "Understanding Social Presence," 138; and Whiteside, "Introducing the Social Presence Model." ↩
18. Robbie Couch, "There's a Wonderful Reason Why Mister Rogers Always Said Aloud That He's Feeding His Fish," Upworthy, February 20, 2018. ↩
19. Neville, Won't You Be My Neighbor?, 2018. ↩
20. "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood," Wikipedia. ↩
21. Gerda Hagenauer and Simone E. Volet, "Teacher–Student Relationship at University: An Important yet Under-Researched Field," Oxford Review of Education 40, no. 3 (May 4, 2014): 370–388. ↩
22. Whiteside, Dikkers, and Lewis, "The Power of Social Presence," 2014. ↩
23. Rita Pierson, Every Kid Needs a Champion, TED Talk, 2013. ↩
24. Rogers, "Fred Rogers Quotes," 2018. ↩

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Aimee L. Whiteside is Associate Professor of English and Writing at the University of Tampa.